Claiming What's His (37 page)

“That’s why you told me to keep her alive?  Just so you can have a new piece of ass?
” Brown snapped, his anger returning.

A new piece of ass.
 

Sam should be pissed that she was referred to a piece of ass but she remembered that there were other pressing matters that were more important, like the fact that she was tied to a chair and that she may die today. 

But, Brown referred to her as a
new
piece of ass.  Who was the
old
one?

“Yeah, he told me to get rid of his other one,” Brown said as if reading her mind.

“Who was his other one?” Sam asked.

“Lynn.”

Sam froze.  The image of Lynn laying in the alley next to that dumpster flooded her eyes.  All that blood, the cuts and the bruises.  It was as if Sam can still hear her wheezing. 

“You did that to her?
” Sam whispered, disgusted that any man would do that to a woman.   She closed her eyes, slowly shook her head, and tried to get the image out from her head.

Before she could think anything else, the sound of a gunshot startled her as she felt a wetness splatter on her face.

Her eyes flew open as she gasped, her breath caught in her throat, to see Brown lying on the floor, gunshot straight in the middle of his forehead, blood flowing down his head. 

His eyes were still wide open, staring out into the empty space as his life left.

“
Oh my God!
  What the
fuck
was that?  Why did you do that?” Sam shouted.  Sam had never killed anyone nor had she witnessed someone being killed.  That was a sight she wouldn’t be able to get out of her head.  It definitely preceded her seeing Lynn bloodied in a dark alley, left to die.

“He was a liability.  He couldn’t keep his mouth shut, even if his life depended on it.  It’s better this way.  Now I don’t have to share the cut with anyone.  Maybe I’ll buy something nice for you, as a
special
gift.”

Haynes had shot Brown out of cold blood and he didn’t even flinch.  Although, Sam had her eyes closed and did see anything, he didn’t hesitate shooting him at all
.   If he didn’t hesitate with Brown, then he surely wouldn’t hesitate with her.

Her throat tightened as she thought that that could be how she would go as well.  She glanced down at Brown’s lifeless body before turning her focus back to Haynes, getting back to the other unanswered question.

“How did Lynn fit into this?” she asked.

             
“She doesn’t.  She only thought she did.  I was using her until we got our stuff panned out.  She’s nothing but a pawn.  Never liked her much.  Thought she was a bitch since we met, but I knew she’d make the perfect decoy.”  Haynes replied.

“Why are you doing all of this?”

Haynes’ lips curled into an evil grin.  “Why do you think?  Money.  It’s all about the money.  I’m sick and tired of working for other people where they’re making millions, maybe billions, from workers like me.  I work long hours of the day and I get paid nearly nothing.  I do all the work while these companies make all the money for all the work that I’ve done.  And it was nearly ruined because of Brown here.  He lost the fundraiser money and he thought he could make it up by stealing from that tent at the Fourth of July.  Idiot.”

Money.

They had done all this for money.  And mystery solved on who the thieves were.

Kidnapping, assault, theft, embezzlement, and murder.
 

Sam really hoped she wouldn’t fall under that last category.

It was crazy what people would do for money. 

Sam felt her throat close.  “Okay, you have me here.  What do you plan on doing with me?”

He pulled off his jacket, throwing it across the table, his eyes looking oddly… hungry.  He was staring at her as if she were his prey.

And for the first time, she felt vulnerable… and scared.  “Maybe we can have a little fun.  Afterwards, I’ll decide.  If you’re good, I might keep you around and lavish you with gifts, buy you some jewelry and expensive underwear to model for me.  You’ll like it.  We could travel the world, wherever you want to go, have wild monkey sex everywhere we go.”

“And what if I’m not good?  What will you do then?”

Sam tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but it was stuck.  “I’m not sure yet.  I could kill you like I killed Bernie here.  Or, I could still take you with me and keep you around to be at my beck-and-call.  After all, I am a guy.”

Sam was going to hurl. 

He was going to use her as some whore who he’d drag everywhere with.  She needed to devise a plan and get out. 

Sam scanned around the room, noticing that there were two sets of windows that led to the outside but three-quarters of them were covered with board.  This meant she had to break through the window and the wood before she could make her escape.

Haynes slowly strutted his way over slowly taking her sight in with that same hungry look in his eyes.  He came to a stop in front of her, his fingers slowly trailing down the front of her blouse, brushing his fingers between her breasts.  With the flick of a finger, the first two buttons came undone, revealing her lacy sage bra.

Sam couldn’t let this happen.  She couldn’t let Haynes take advantage of her.  She had to think of something. 

“Please.  Please, don’t hurt me,” she pleaded as her throat closed even more.

“Don’t worry, gorgeous.  It won’t hurt at all.  In a few minutes, you’ll be purring like a kitten and begging me to make you feel better.”

Oh God.  She was going to be sick.

His head slowly lowered towards her and she knew that he was going to kiss her. 

Her head tilted back as far as it would go, but it wasn’t far enough.

His lips lightly brushed against hers when the sound of glass breaking startled them. 

Haynes whirled around as a can dropped to the floor and gas poured out, clouding the room.

Immediately, he turned and ran, knocking her backwards, landing partially over Brown’s body.

Sam coughed as she tried to turn her head away from the gas.

Strong hands gripped her arms as she was being pulled up.  Her hands and feet were freed within seconds after that.  A hand slid across her waist, her arm thrown over a muscular shoulder, making their way out of the house.

Sam was still coughing uncontrollable while her eyes watered, not being able to focus on who was helping her out.

Once she stepped outside, flashing red and blue lights blinded her briefly.

“Sam!”

It was her Dad.

“Dad?” she mumbled.

“Yeah, it’s be baby girl.  I got her, Dean.  Thanks.”

It was Dean who went in to get her.

Where the hell was Alex?

“Alex is with Haynes, cuffing him and putting him in the back of a patrol car,” Mitch answered as if knowing her thoughts.

She might as well gave up now, wondering how people always knew what she thought.

*******

              “We re-ran Haynes name again and found that the real Joseph Haynes died four years ago due to a heart aneurism.  The Haynes we know now is Joseph Haynes III and he has a whole rap sheet or two of fraud, grand theft auto, robberies, and burglaries to him.  Joseph Haynes was his grandfather and apparently he thought he could get away with using his clean background,” Alex informed her.

             
“Now he can start by adding attempted sexual assault, kidnapping, assault, and whatever charges you can think of to his ever-growing charges.  How did you find me?” Sam asked him after he finally emerged from the group of cops surrounding him and Haynes and stopped in front of her as she placed the oxygen mask back over her nose and mouth.

             
She had been sitting in the back of an ambulance with an mask over her for the past twenty minutes as Mitch covered her with a warm blanket earlier and left her to join the badged men.

             
The minute Alex parted from the group, his eyes searched for hers and when he found them, he came directly to her and he never took his eyes off her.  He looked calm, cool, and relaxed, probably because they finally caught the bad guy.  He had stopped in front of her and stared for a beat when she asked her question.

             
“We tagged both Brown and Haynes’ cars when we spotted them a while back and put tracking devices in them.  I had Corey track them ever since, detailing where they’ve been and for how long, and so forth.

             
Sam lowered her mask slowly, not believing what he revealed to her like he had committed murder himself.  “You had their cars
tagged
with tracking devices and you
didn’t
tell me.  Why?”

             
“I wanted to keep you safe.”

             
That was thoughtful, although unnecessary.  Sam was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, even though today’s event proved her wrong.

             
Ignoring that warm feeling that the comment had given her, the prowled through, “But this was
our
case.  And you didn’t tell me what you were doing.  You and I were supposed to be partners.  Again, why?”

             
He instantly answered.  “Didn’t think it was important.  Plus it was a need to know.”

             
Sam’s head jerked back.  Her blood pressure instantly spiked.  “It was a
need to know
?  We’ve been working this case from the beginning together.  I nearly got killed, not once, not twice, but three times and you didn’t think I needed to know about this?  This was my case!”

             
“
Our
case,” he corrected, knowing very well that this minor detail wouldn’t get him out of trouble.

             
She felt her nose begin to sting as she calmed herself.  “Fine. If it was
ours
, then why didn’t you share that information with me?” she shot back.

             
He silenced, his eyes moved, looking slightly annoyed at her nagging.  Instead of answering her question, he said, “We found you, you’re safe.  We caught the guy.  He’s going away for a long time.  Isn’t that all that matters?”

             
He acted as if it wasn’t a big deal that he kept crucial information from her.

             
“Sure, but if I had known about it, then maybe I could’ve done something differently.  Maybe we couldn’t solve it sooner without the death of one person and the critical injury of another.  But, instead, you chose to keep that vital information from me, proving to me that you don’t trust me.”

             
“The same thing you did to me with your surveillance at the diner?” he shot back.

             
“That’s not the same and you know it.  This was life or death involved.”

             
“And how did you know that life or death wouldn’t be involved in during the diner surveillance?”

             
“I didn’t, but if I sensed that it was, I would’ve called it in, to Chuck and to you.  And if memory served me right, you figured it out on your own with my having to tell you anyways.  But you didn’t inform me of this, not one little bit, and it left me going in blindsided, knowing that this could’ve been handled differently.”

             
With that, Sam threw the blanket off, dropped the mask, hopped down from the truck, and walked away with Alex calling her name, refusing to hear anymore of his excuses.  She may have been stubborn with her answers regarding her surveillance, but it wasn’t the cause of any fatalities.

             
After everything they went through together, past and present, he had the nerve to tell her that she didn’t need to know about something he was doing regarding the case.

He didn’t see her as an equal, a partner.  She wasn’t sure if he ever did. 

All the sex had been great, but beyond that, he made her feel as if he didn’t want, nor need, her help.  If he couldn’t share this tidbit, then there were possibly others that he wouldn’t share and she knew she couldn’t handle that.  She wasn’t sure if this hurt more or his harsh words back in high school. 

Regardless of which, the fact of the matter is, it still hurt altogether.  And she was done.

After all those years, his haunting words echoed back in her head and she understood it.

             
She finally realized what she meant to him.

             
Absolutely nothing.

Sam drove back to the apartment to pack up a bag, took off her engagement ring, leaving it on the night stand, grabbed the kiddos, and dropped them off at Mitch’s house.  She told him that she would be gone for a few days to ‘recuperate’ at her favorite place and for him not to tell anyone.  He nodded and kissed her goodbye.

She drove for a little over an hour when she pulled up to their log cabin at Lake Conroe on the north end of the lake that ran into Sam Houston National Forest.  Mitch had inherited the cabin from his father when he passed away when she was four years old.  Since then, every year they always spent the summers there.  Some of those summers even included Maggie there with her. 

Maybe coming to the lake house wasn’t far away enough seeing as anyone could easily find her, but she was tired, she was drained, and she was pissed.  She didn’t want to be stuck in the car for hours just to whittle her anger away when she had a perfect lake house a few minutes away.

Sam got out of the car, leaving the keys and bags there because nothing ever happened out there.  Shutting the door, she walked towards the lake and out on the deck.  She slid off her sandals, sat on the edge of the deck, and dipped her feet in, slowly
wading them back and forth. 

The sun was still bright overhead and it would be great to go for a swim.  Nothing would be better than to strip down to in a bikini and dip in the cool water until the heat washed over her.  But, she wasn’t in the mood.

The lake itself wasn’t deep where she was.  She stared down into the water under the deck where she could see the bottom, with nothing but sand and rocks.  Most of the lake was shallow, especially about forty to fifty feet from the bank on out towards the lake.  Motorboats couldn’t run around this part of the lake due to the threat of getting stuck.

She thought back about the case on the way there, everything that had happened. 

She may have over reacted about her not meaning anything to him.  She knew she meant something.  He loved her.  And she loved him, even though she hadn’t said it to him yet.

But she had been so angry with the outcome of the case and had to blame it on someone.  If he had just told her about the tracking device, things could’ve gone a lot different.

Instead, she was kidnapped a second time
and
nearly killed another time, she wasn’t feeling all forgiving and understanding at the moment.

She looked out at the calm water, her mind blank, refusing to think of anything as she absentmindedly rubbed her finger with her thumb where her ring sat not long ago (not realizing she was doing it).

For the first time in a long time, it worked.

*******

The sun slowly began to set and Sam got up and headed back to the car. 

She pulled out her duffle bag and groceries she had managed to pick up from the store before leaving town.  She walked in, flipped the light switch on by the door and the light illuminated the room. 

Everything had been left the same as she was when we had left it two months ago before she opened Samantha Daniels Investigations.  Inside to the left sat the same microfiber brown couch she had chosen a few years ago at a local furniture store in town.  She had chosen brown because it was a log cabin… made of wood.  That was all of her logical reasoning at the time.  To the right were the kitchen square table and its four chairs.  That color was called oak.  All of the appliances chosen were black to help keep and maintain the contrast of the cabin.

             
She set the groceries down on the counter and unpacked them away.  Then she walked back to the couch with a to-go box of Chinese food she had pick up and ate it, flipping on the small TV, leaving it on the first clear channel she had managed to get.

             
The sun had set an hour ago and she knew that know would be a good time for that swim.

             
After dinner, she stripped out of her clothes and covered herself with a robe, grabbing a towel as she walked out the door and heading to the lake for a late night swim.

             
She pulled the robe off, dropped it and the towel on the deck as she slowly slide herself into the lake, holding on to the side of the deck for support. 

             
The water was slightly warm from the sun even with it being late summer.  But this was still Texas after all so it wasn’t bad. 

             
She floated onto her back, leg paddling out toward the middle of the lake probably about thirty feet where she stayed there as calm as she could.  She took caution of her head injury as it touched the water.  That initial contact stung for a brief moment, but it was fine afterwards.

             
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, taking in all the tranquility and stillness of the night and released all of the tension and anger she had festered in her.

             
She wasn’t sure how long she was there, but she sensed that someone else was there as well.  There was something poking at her, telling her that she was no longer alone.  She felt the water rippling, rocking her as the waves passed.  She was beginning to right herself so that she could see who it was when someone hooked an arm to her waist and began dragging her back to the deck. 

             
Sam screamed, struggling and scratching anything that would make her captor released me.  She had been kidnapped one too many times already; she wasn’t going to let that happen again.

             
With all the struggling, she had momentarily failed to realize one thing about her captor.  He was naked.

             
She bobbed herself and somehow got loose of his hold, going underwater.  She kicked him in his abs and swam away beneath the water.  She was confident that she could get away from him as long as she stayed underwater where he couldn’t see her.

             
She was wrong. 

             
Again.

             
She managed to swim about five feet away before she felt what seemed like arms waving around underwater, assumingly to try and find her.

             
It worked for him.

             
Of course it did.

             
It didn’t work for her as always.

             
He grabbed her ankles and yanked down, making her jolt slightly back.  He grabbed a hold of her again, wrapping his arm around her waist and swam straight up to the surface.  Once they cleared the top, she quickly gasped for air then tried scrambling away again. 

             
Oh God.

             
Was this how she was going to die?  Here at her family lake house without anyone nearby and away from her family?

             
Her life was flashing within her eyes, again.

             
His arms tightened before he growled, “Sam, stop!”

             
Alex.

             
Sam halted her struggles and turned in his arms to see his eyes glaring at her from the moon light. 

             
He was there. 

             
In the lake. 

             
With her. 

             
Naked.

             
What the hell!

             
“What are you doing here?  How did you find me?  Let me go!” she yelled as she pushed against his shoulders.

             
His grip tightened as he irately growled, “You are one hard person to find.  But, did you forget what I do?  While I had Dean and Corey looking for anything about you, I went to everyone I could think of who might know where you were.”

             
Sam felt her eyes narrowed and her temper rising.  “Let me guess, it was Dad who told you.”

             
“Nope.  Mitch just told me you weren’t there.  It was Maggie who gave you up.”

             
What the hell?  Her brows came together.  Sam didn’t understand how Maggie knew.  She hadn’t told her anything.  She hadn’t had the chance to tell anyone.

             
“Maggie?  How would she know?  I didn’t even see her today.”

             
“Apparently, Mitch told Maggie right after you left.  And she told me.”

             
Damn. 

             
Betrayed by her own family. 

             
Sam wondered if it was possible to officially divorce from family members.  If it was, she was going to get that processed immediately and move to Bora Bora where she’ll live year-round on the island working on her tan and getting a job as celebrity coconut sculptor.  If that wasn’t possible, then maybe she’d trade them for someone who would show her more loyalty than the two of them combined.

             
“And I told him not to tell anyone,” she muttered, irritated with fact that even her own flesh and blood would sell her out so quickly.

             
“You failed.”

             
“You’re telling me.  Now let me go!” She pulled against his arm but only to have his arms of steel pull her in tighter.

             
Alex shook her a little, his hand sliding up to grip her hair so that she could focus on his dark eyes.

             
She felt the anger leave his body, but it was something she didn’t want to focus on.

             
“No.  Now that I have you in the middle of the lake with nowhere to go, and you’re naked, which I’m enjoying by the way, we’re gonna talk.”

             
“I have nothing to say,” she bit out with her gritted teeth.

             
“That’s fine because I do, you just listen.  I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the tracking devices.  I only did it to protect you.”

             
Protect her?  Why would he think he was protecting her?

             
He continued, “I knew you were close to solving the case and I was afraid that if you knew about the tracking devices, you would try going after them at all hours of the day, meaning you leave in the middle of the night when anything could’ve happened to you and I wouldn’t be able to look out for you.”

             
Sam stopped pushing against him.

             
He was right.  She would have.

             
Now she felt her temper dissipate.

             
“So I did the first thing that came to mind and that was to keep it from you.  I was wrong.  You were my partner on the case and I should have treated you like one, trusting you with that information.  I’m sorry.”

             
Sam was silent.  She now understood why he did it and it made sense why he did it. 

             
The logical and adult-like thing to do would be to admit that he was right.  But, she was born stubborn and so she kept it that way.

             
At least for now.

             
She looked to the side and pulled at his arms again, hoping it would loosen so she could make her escape.               

             
It didn’t budge.  She stopped trying again.

             
She was still silent so he continued.

             
Just when she thought he was finished, he added, “As for us, this is your fault.”

             
Her body did a small jerk and her face snapped back to him, his eyes warm but firm.

             
“
My
fault?” she snapped.  She let it slip out as if she wanted to control that.  He was blaming her for coming here which technically she did.  But still, he was an ass about it.

             
“Yeah, you left before I could apologize and left me,
again
.”

             
Oh crap. 

             
She did do it again.

             
Sam sighed and her head fell to his shoulders.  He released his hand in her hair, sliding it down her back to her lower waist.

             
“It’s not my fault you were an ass, Alex,” she told him.

             
“I know.  And I would’ve apologized but you were gone when I went after you.”

             
It was getting really hard to stay mad at him (and she knew it), especially when he followed her there, apologized, and he was wet and naked in the lake with her that her concentration was completely out of focus.

             
Alex pressed his lips to her shoulders, trailing up to her face and her lips.  He softly kissed her lips until she gave in and kissed him back.  His hands roamed her ass, rubbing them back and forth and pulling her to him.  She felt his rock hard cock and instantly wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her arms around his shoulders as his hands went back to her ass keeping her lifted.